Gambit: Everything We Know About the X-Men Spinoff

If you can believe it, it's been almost three years since a spinoff film starring the fan-favorite X-Man Gambit was first reported to be in development, exciting longtime fans of the character that have cherished the Ragin' Cajun since his Uncanny X-Men debut in 1990 and starring role on the beloved X-Men: The Animated Series. Though 20th Century Fox has made it clear time and time again the movie is still indeed in the works, nothing has come to fruition, with nary a production start date in sight. Regardless, the film is still happening, and we even have a few hints as to how that movie may look. So, in anticipation for Gambit's big-screen solo outing, we run down everything we know (so far) about the X-Man's first-ever solo film, from the genesis of the project to the very latest news indicating that the entire project may be rebuilt from the ground up!

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On October 31, 2014, a report surfaced that Fox was developing a Gambit film, which would star and be produced by Magic Mike's Channing Tatum. The project would be co-produced by Reid Carolin and X-Men franchise veterans Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg. The writer of the RoboCop reboot, Josh Zetumer, was revealed to be penning a script for the film, based on a treatment from Gambit co-creator and X-Men comics legend Chris Claremont. Tatum's role in the film, and the project as a whole, was confirmed in an additional report released in January 2015.

“We really do want to try our hardest to give something fresh,” Tatum said while promoting the animated film Book of Life. “We’re obviously going to go to the saving-the-world superhero movies eventually, but maybe not for the first one. We kinda want to introduce this character in a different way. When you try to do something different, you never know right off the bat what that is.”

With an October 2016 release date seemingly set in stone, Tatum would go on to tease the project in several interviews that followed the announcement. In May 2015, the leading man touted Zetumer's script: “Josh Zetumer just turned in the first draft of the script, and it’s killer...None of us were sure how he was going to deal with the X-Men world. But we’re going to be changing some of the tropes of these movies. It’s always about saving the world [Laughs], but maybe we’re going to shift things a little but. There’s so many ways you can take [an origin story]. You could do it like Batman Begins, or a different take and go the Guardians of the Galaxy route. All I can say is, I’m super excited.”

Tatum went on to discuss what attracted him to the role and revealed that he’s been a fan of Gambit for a while.

“I love Gambit,” the star noted. “I grew up in the South; my father’s from Louisiana. We’d go to New Orleans and I heard all the dialects. It felt so different from the rest of America; it has its own ancient culture. So I identified with that. And he always felt the most real of the X-Men to me. He’s kind of a tortured soul and he’s not a good guy. But he’s not a bad guy, either. He walks his own path. And of course he plays cards and drinks and is a martial-arts bad ass!”

By June 2015, the Gambit film had found a director: Rise of the Planet of the Apes director -- and current rumored Green Lantern Corps helmer -- Rupert Wyatt.

“We finally found someone that I really do believe wants to make Gambit,” Tatum said, referencing Wyatt. “And I just really think because Gambit is not the most popular or the biggest hero, I think there’s a really unique opportunity. Marvel’s done a lot of great movies that have made a ridiculous amount of money, and it’s always good to figure how to change the form.”

Speaking to CBR in June 2015, Tatum discussed the developing story for the film. “We’re so early in it,” Tatum said. “I really have some things in mind, but who knows — it’s pretty fluid at this point. I do believe that [director] Rupert [Wyatt] and I have the exact same vision of what we want to do. We want it to be different. I think Gambit is a really specific sort of character to not do some of these other things that some of the other superheroes kind of have to do. It’s who they are. I think his character lends itself to doing something maybe slightly different.”

Gearing Up for Production

Later that month, it was reported that Tatum had begun training for the film, learning how to "throw cards" and do "sleight of hand" from a real-life magician, in addition to working on the leading character's Cajun accent. The film was supposed to shoot in October or November 2015, in New Orleans.

“It’s all being worked on at the moment,” Tatum said when asked about the film’s progress. “I’m from the south, so I know who to go to to find the accent. I haven’t found ‘the guy’ yet, because generally that’s how I do accents. I’ll find the person I want to sound like and not just do a generic Cajun accent. So I haven’t found the guy yet.”

“Gambit’s gonna be different like every character is different,” Tatum added, addressing the physicality of Gambit. “You can’t just be skinny. He’s gonna be way, way, way less muscle mass, I’ll say that.” Tatum also noted that his diet and training regimen for the role includes “a lot of running and a lot of broccoli...super sexy, right?”

By mid-2015 it seemed the pieces were in place for Gambit to shoot later that year. Tatum even appeared in a promotional photo for Fox's mini Marvel Universe, alongside fellow X-Men stars and the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot cast, ahead of Comic-Con International in San Diego. And by the end of July 2015, a report surfaced that the budget for the film would be a hefty $155 million.

Though a report indicated Tatum might be leaving the project, he was confirmed to stick around for the project only a couple days later -- and he remains attached to Gambit to this day.

Following casting rumors that Rebecca Ferguson, Lea Seydoux and Abbey Lee were testing for the leading female role in Gambit, it was reported that Seydoux -- star of Spectre -- would play femme fatale Bella Donna in the film.

Bella Donna was created by Scott Lobdell and Jim Lee, and first appeared in 1992’s X-Men #8. She’s closely connected with Gambit, with the characters knowing each other since childhood and sharing a subsequently complicated relationship of being both lovers and (given her status as a member of the Assassins’ Guild) enemies. Like Gambit, Bella Donna is also a mutant, with powers of astral projection and plasma blasts.

With major casting in place, more details began to emerge surrounding the film's role in the greater X-Men film universe. Kinberg confirmed Gambit's existence in the shared universe, noting, "...the Gambit movie, the Deadpool movie, will exist in a world that acknowledges whatever happened in Days of Future Past and moving forward. Doesn’t mean they’ll always interact with those characters, obviously, it’s not like every movie has all the characters, but they all have to exist within the same rules.” He then added, “There will be interplay between different characters in different movies.”

Kinberg would later describe the film as a heist movie and a sexy thriller. "...Gambit will have its own different flavor and tone to it, will be more of like a heist movie and a sexy thriller in a way.”

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First Signs of Trouble

However, the first signs of a troubled production surfaced when it was reported in September 2015 -- only a month before cameras were set to roll -- that Wyatt would no longer be directing the project. “I was very much looking forward to working with my friend Channing and the team at Fox, but regrettably a push in the start date now conflicts with another project,” Wyatt said in a statement. “I thank them for the opportunity, and I know that Gambit will make a terrific film.” According to the report, an escalating budget due to script issues contributed to Wyatt’s exit.

Following reports that Shane Black and Joe Cornish were eying deals to replace Wyatt on the project, it looked as though Edge of Tomorrow's Doug Liman would be the one to helm the film.

Then, in November 2015, Seydoux contradicted report that she would be playing Bella Donna in the film, telling reporters, "Listen, no, I haven’t signed for Gambit.”

With key creative changes seemingly in place, it looked as though the production start date of Fall 2015 would be pushed to at least Spring 2016, almost certainly moving the initial October 7, 2016 release date. Regardless, Kinberg insisted the core people involved in the project were hard at work bringing Gambit to life. "...We’ve been spending a lot of time together — Channing, [Reid Carolin, Tatum’s producing partner], [screenwriter Joshua Zetumer], the director, and myself — just working on the script, and we hope to start shooting next spring.” Kinberg added, “Unless we were to accelerate, it would be really hard to make [the October 7 release] date.”

“Channing is a big fan of the comic,” Kinberg would go on to tease, “so the accent, the attitude, the costume in many way, will be in the film. And he’s a character with a complex backstory — we’re playing him as a thief in the film, and that’s a big part of the story.”

With Liman set to shoot the film, it was reported that Gambit would shoot in March. Then, news broke that 20th Century Fox had removed Gambit from its release schedule, reportedly due to script rewrites.

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Getting the Script Right

“I think one of the things that I’ve learned on all of these movies — and maybe the lesson was best learned for me on Deadpool — is the most important thing is getting the tone and the voice right,” Kinberg said in May 2016. “That the storytelling, the actual plots, are sort of interchangeable and disposable, ultimately. If I ask you what your favorite movies are, you’re not going to tell me the plot, you’re going to tell me you love this character, and so what we’ve really tried to do with Gambit is make sure we get the voice of that character right, and the tone of the comics 100 percent on the page.”

“There was a moment where we were going to shoot the movie at the beginning of this year, and then we felt it just wasn’t ready,” Kinberg continued. “So, knowing — hoping — that Gambit is, like Deadpool was, the start of a new franchise within the X-Men universe, we want to make sure to get it right.”

“We’ve gotta get the script right,” Sinberg said promoting X-Men: Apocalypse. “We just didn’t get the script to the place that we all felt like that movie deserved, so we’re still working on the script — we’re very close, actually, to being done with the script.”

Still working on the script, Kinberg insisted in July 2016 that the film would shoot in Spring 2017. “We have a great script on that and hope to shoot that movie at the beginning of spring of next year," he said.

In August 2016, Kinberg touched on Gambit’s development, which he described as “normal.” “I think the truth is when you have these movies that need a very special and unique tone, it takes a little while to find that tone,” he explained. “Deadpool feels like it exploded out of nowhere but it was a ten-year development process on that movie. I think it was honed over those ten years. I hope that Gambit doesn’t take ten years but it takes a little honing to get that tone and that voice exactly right. The character has such a specific voice in the comic in the same way that Deadpool has a specific voice in the comic, that we want to make sure that we capture that voice on the page. Really it’s just about getting a screenplay that is worthy of that character and I think we’re really close right now.”

Well, by late-August 2016, Liman had departed the project, leaving Gambit without a director, yet again. The report cited a "mutual parting of ways" between Liman and the studio. Liman later opened up about his reason for leaving the project: “I’m all about the script, and I just wasn’t feeling it...I’ve gotta connect to the script. On Bourne Identity, Matt Damon was always referring to himself as a ‘script whore,’ and I’m with Matt on that. It’s like, you feel the script, that’s everything. We make movies because we want to tell great stories.”

Regardless, Tatum would still be attached to the project.

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Channing Tatum In It For the Long Haul

“I think...[Channing Tatum's] devotion [to Gambit] is true, and is critical of these movies," Kinberg said in February 2017. “The success of Logan creatively is about Hugh [Jackman]’s demands, in the nicest possible way because he’s the nicest man on the planet, his demands for making the movie as character-driven and honest and human and relatable and real as possible. Channing feels the same way, sort of an obligation, to Gambit. And Ryan Reynolds felt that way about Deadpool. It’s something that we are learning to listen to as filmmakers with these actors. If they can inhabit the role and they can bring a consistent tone to that tone, an original tone and voice to that role, then those movies are going to be successful.”

Most recently, X-Men franchise producer Hutch Parker and Tatum himself confirmed Gambit is still happening, even though it doesn't have a director, full cast, production start date or firm script in place.

Earlier this week, Tatum revealed that the project is starting from scratch. “We lit a fuse on the first one and just blew it completely out of the water," he said. "I think we got lucky – we got hit with some setbacks and it was all for a good reason. We were trying to do something completely different. We were trying to do something that this genre of movie hasn’t seen before. We kept running into the same problems, and then Deadpool and Logan came through and kicked the doors down."

“Now we’re really getting to do some of the things we’ve always wanted to do with the script – we’ve just sort of started over.”

So, it's happening -- with Channing Tatum. The actor has been a constant throughout the ups and down of the project, and clearly is invested in getting the character -- and script -- right. He's trained for the role already, and is clearly passionate about the source material. But when we see the film on the big screen...well, that still remains a mystery.